Live bait shortages have become an ever more present issue for anglers. Suckers, shiners, and leeches are easy to find in the spring and early summer months, but once fall rolls around it can be tough to find good sized leeches. Jason Mitchell uses a storage trick that greatly extends the storage life of jumbo leeches so they can be used well into fall.
First off, Jason recommends storing leeches in Styrofoam buckets. They seem to do better in Styrofoam rather than plastic buckets. Once a week, after pulling out any dead leeches, Jason takes the leeches out of the bucket and places them onto a paper towel and sprinkles salt on them. After all the leeches have been salted, almost immediately place them in cold water and rinse them off. After a minute or so, and after changing the water in the Styrofoam bucket, put the leeches back into the original bucket they had been stored in. This keeps them lively, plump, and thriving for long periods of storage.
This tip will extend the storage life of your leeches and keep those nice, jumbo leeches in your possession for fall walleye fishing!
